Power project faces resistance

Multistate line would need 50-acre substation near Mount Airy

FREDERICK — Dick Ishler, a Mount Airy real estate agent, was unconcerned at first that a major power line would come to Frederick County. The location listed was Kemptown, a few miles from his suburban neighborhood.

But the substation — covering 50 acres, about the size of a high school — and towers 100 and 150 feet tall will be less than a mile from his home.

"Virtually every house" in the community will be able to see the substation, Ishler said.

One of the companies proposing the power line, Allegheny Power, raised balloons to show the height of the structure this month, and to illustrate how plaintings and earthworks could hide it. He remains concerned.

Mount Airy resident Bob McLearen said about 1,300 homes would share a view of the substation.

"It makes no sense," McLearen said.

To proponents, the Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline, is needed for the region's quality of life. Energy use has outgrown the electrical infrastructure. By 2014, if more power lines are not built, the region could face blackouts in summer months when demand is high.

Crossing 275 miles at a cost of $1.8 billion, PATH would deliver electricity from a coal-fired power station in southeastern West Virginia to population centers east. Allegheny Energy, based in Pittsburgh, and its partner American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, are asking the Maryland Public Service Commission for the permits necessary to build the line.

PATH will serve much of Maryland and the Washington suburbs where demand is high, according to H. Russell Frisby Jr., former PSC chairman and a spokesman for the PATH Education and Awareness Team.

But because of the way the power grid distributes electricity, PATH will supply other states. Opponents have balked that Maryland residents would have to support electricity needs elsewhere, especially because Allegheny is proposing a monthly 68-cent addition to its customers' bills.

Frisby said most of the power from PATH will benefit the states through which it runs.

"Maryland is going to be a major beneficiary of the power," he said.

The companies plan to use 765-kilovolt power lines, which are more efficient and thereby saving tons of coal.

About 20 miles, or about one-fourteenth its length, will be in Maryland. In addition to Maryland's approval, the line must also get blessings from regulators in Virginia and West Virginia.

The Maryland PSC has a year to consider the permit request, before the company can take its proposal before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Several residents of southeastern Frederick County have filed as interveners in the case, including the Sugarloaf Conservancy, which is concerned with preserving the rural landscape around Sugarloaf Mountain, and Citizens Against the Kemptown Electric Substation, or CAKES. Opponents have enlisted the aid of the Sierra Club.

Residents have organized to oppose the substation before the PSC citing less electrical need because of the recession and the possible environmental damage from constructing the line.

McLearen and the other CAKES also argued the line would decrease property values and cause health dangers.

They cited studies that suggest electromagnetic field radiation from power lines are linked to childhood leukemia and Alzheimer's disease.

CAKES member Ginny MacColl is not convinced by PATH's proponents' assertions that EMF poses no dangers. If residents discover health problems in the future, all the guarantees from PATH's builders would be meaningless, she said.

"I don't want us to look back 10 years from now and say I was against this, but I couldn't stop it,'" said McColl, who is Ishler's wife.